Summary

Death’s Shadow decks in Modern have gone through enough variations that the strategy was more or less solved, with Grixis Shadow widely deemed to be the best option, with Sultai and Abzan as the other viable options. However, the deck we’re featuring today tries to do something different, by combining it with a powerful and quick combo deck.

Despite diluting the Death’s Shadow element of the deck, that part still shines through. Death’s Shadow, Thoughtseize, Street Wraith, and fetchlands are all that are really needed to facilitate this package. Because of the presence of Death’s Shadow, this deck, just like the more traditional versions, should aggressively lose life in order to get a big Shadow into play. The power of Death’s Shadow is certainly fully appreciated in this format, as it is regularly the largest creature on the field for only 1 mana. Street Wraith essentially makes the deck 56 cards, actively helping its consistency, while Modern’s manabase actively encourages you to play fetchlands for mana consistency and deck thinning.

All of these looting spells also enable a third package, which is the HollowVine package that has been Modern players’ favorite new synergy-focused engine in the last few weeks. It uses both Vengevine and the newly printed Hollow One to get beefy creatures into play quickly and for little to no cost. It does require that you have reliable spells that discard multiple cards, but this deck already wants to play those cards, making this an engine that doesn’t limit the deck’s power or consistency in any meaningful way.